The Xana Confederation
by oshnsoa shnedashn kiunepgli
Summary: AU. In the not distant future, an evil artificial intelligence has launched an invasion of earth. The opening salvos have destroyed the colonies on the moon, and now after three years the ensuing ground war has met in a heated stalemate. It is up to a crack team, code named Lyoko to strike deep in the heart of Xana held territory to find a way to break the back of the invading army
1. Chapter 1

**A/N; So this is to be my return to Code Lyoko, as was promised long ago. This is an idea that I have had bouncing around in my head for a while, and after having just read the latest work of one resident Kittyclaw, I decided to put pen to paper as it were. **

**This is an AU, my first ever actually. So here we are; the date is unimportant, what matters is that we are 'twenty minutes into the future' and an evil artificial intelligence has attacked earth. I hope you enjoy my latest brain child, please R&R.**

Chapter 1

Ulrich Stern looked out over the darkened sky. Broken spires and shattered buildings looked back at him, the missing windows and empty rooms seemed mournful, even accusing. Like this was his fault. Maybe it was, he didn't know. He was just a soldier. Just a soldier in war humanity couldn't win.

Around him half resting in exhaustion were his childhood friends. Still children all, they were forced to grow old fast in order to survive. Three years ago now, it went horribly wrong. The ships came from beyond the solar ring, the first signs of life anyone had ever seen, and the first thing they did was obliterate the lunar colonies. Five million people gone in an instant. Armies of mechanical monsters were disgorged into the streets, all led by an overriding artificial intelligence that called itself Xana.

Ulrich was nominally in charge of his little band, resting in the corner of the apartment they were holed up in was Yumi, dark flak armor obscuring her figure, with her hair cascading down past her neck. Even sleeping she kept her bangs tucked behind her ears, she clutched her bow tightly to her chest, the nickname Odd gave customized sniper rifle had stuck, and she refused to part with it for even a second.

Odd rested on the floor, curled up in a tight ball, the demolitions expert looked almost peaceful. Ulrich smiled; while asleep you almost couldn't tell that he was a semi crazed pyromaniac. He was actually using a bandolier of grenades as a pillow. He certainly was odd.

William served as a heavy weapons specialist, he slept sitting up against the far wall resting across his lap was broadsword, and next to that a heavy machine gun. He remained distant from the group, and with good reason. They had only known him for a short time, less than a year really. It had been Aelita's idea to bring him in.

The tiny young woman was a telekine, an extremely rare ability that enabled her to manifest incredible psychic powers at will. Out of everyone in their group, she was perhaps the most dangerous. Something that was incredibly at odds with her personality, as despite the rigors of war she alone had held onto the idealistic views they had all shared as children.

Cuddled next to her rested Jeremy. He still looked much as he had in school, awkward and glasses ridden. He was the group's combat engineer, able to work through almost any technical issue that they encountered.

They were a crack unit. One of the best there ever was, each seemed to possess an instinctive ability when it came to fighting the forces of Xana. Their code name was Lyoko; Odd had begun referring to the team as the Lyoko warriors. Ulrich thought the name was cute.

He gazed over the rubble that filled the streets searching for movement, looking for any signs of the enemy that was supposed to be all around them. The thing that was strangest of all was that there were none. They were deep in enemy territory and hadn't seen anything in three days. Almost like Xana didn't care if people snuck back into the city.

Ulrich's eyelids were getting heavier. He looked at his watch, a sturdy model that was designed to be knocked around and dropped. 3:27 it read. Very late. Or just really early depending on your point of view, he mused.

"Ulrich, did you fall asleep? It's nearly dawn."

Ulrich bolted upright, his neck aching from the strange angle it had bent to while he was sleeping. Yumi was kneeling over him, her hand on his shoulder, concern in her eyes. Behind her stood Jeremy, his laptop out and clicking away at something on it.

"Didn't mean to, sorry."

Yumi shook her head and helped him to his feet. "It's okay."

"No its not." William's voice cut through the dawn, drawing everyone's attention to him. "If you're supposed to be keeping watch, you need to keep watch. That's how they sneak up on us.

"Then you can take it last next time." Yumi snapped back, pointing an accusing finger at his chest. "You've had first for the last three days. That's just going to bed late. The rest of us have to wake up halfway through the night when we draw watch."

Aeilta stepped between the two, holding her hands out in a gesture of appeasement. "It really doesn't matter that much. We're safe, and we haven't seen any activity in days."

William grumbled something under his breath and hefted his equipment.

"Aelita's not wrong." Jeremy cut in, spinning his laptop around to show the screen. "I've been laying monitors as we go part of the whole point of this mission, to track movement around us. There hasn't been anything. Not even monsters moving up towards the front. I've only mapped a little bit, but it seems Xana has no desire to patrol whit it already owns."

"Why does that matter?" Odd was finally awake. Strapping on his explosives he patted one of them affectionately. The detonator in his breast pocket he called Kiwi, he claimed because it reminded him of a grapefruit. "It just makes it easier to sneak in and blow something up."

"It means, Odd, that we might finally have proof that what's been suspected all along is true. That Xana is only fighting to destroy everything. It doesn't want to fight to conquer, like humans do."

Yumi nudged Ulrich. "Is it weird when Aeilta talks like she isn't human?" The young man nodded and his companions whispered question.

Ulrich picked up his weapons, a pair of light swords and a rifle. "We need to get moving."

They picked their way through the rubble strewn streets, each acutely aware that the tight confines were the perfect place for the tiny kankrelots to hide in. Yumi was reflexively playing her fingers over the stock of her rifle, a handgun held in her other hand. The extent to which she hated being this close in was setting everyone else on edge. Her reflexive drumming beating out an ever lengthening metronome.

The silence was becoming too much. Every mile or so, Jeremy would set another motion tracker. It was a brief break from the monotony of trudging deeper into the city. No one had ever made it this far in without being attacked, or at least seeing monsters. It made this trip grate on Ulrich's nerves even more. Their primary objective was called a control node, nicknamed a tower by ground teams. They were nearly impossible to find, and always it seemed were heavily defended. But destroying one would weaken Xana's control of the monsters in the area; make it easier to fight back against them.

The sharp crack of a gunshot broke the silence like a film of ice on a pound. Everyone froze, weapons at the ready, and it was only after a few tense moments that anyone realized what had happened. As one they each turned to face Yumi. The look of absolute horror on her face was enough to stay Ulrich's stinging rebuke. That did not mean she was forgiven however.

That they were all on edge was one thing, each had their own ways of coping with the stress, for Yumi it had always been playing with the stock of her beloved sniper rifle. A vein bulged in Ulrich's forehead, and the Japanese girl looked to her feet; accidentally discharging the vicious weapon while on a stealth mission was unacceptable. And she knew it.

"foolish." He muttered, more to himself than to her, but she still heard him. And the hurt in her eyes told him that he had wounded more than her pride in just that moment.

"It was an accident, I didn't mean to." Her voice broke, and for a moment she looked like just a girl again, not the accomplished sniper she had become. A beeping coming from Jeremy's laptop forestalled any further issues. He set the case down and opened it, a look of panic appearing on his face.

"My last motion tracker is signaling movement. Lots of it. I can't get any specifics, but I think Yumi's stunt just solved our no monsters problem. "The hint of bitterness in his voice was almost palpable; he was fine with sneaking around, but not so much the fighting part.

"Set up a perimeter! Odd, rig the street! Yumi, get it together and get up into that building, slow their approach."

The instant of anger had passed Ulrich by, now the only thing that mattered was surviving. Everyone move quickly, taking up positions and preparing their equipment. William was crouched down in the rubble just outside Ulrich's reach, sword near his feet and machine gun in his hands. Behind him he could hear Yumi scrambling up the blasted out side of the building that had once been a bank. Even as focused on the now as he was, part of his mind was still focused on Yumi. She was getting worse. He hated to see her like this, but something had to be done.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/n **

**This is the second chapter [obviously] but importantly it sets a trend wherein each chapter will be from the nominal perspective of a different character. This one will follow Aeilta, giving us an insight into her mind, and into the powers of a telekine. **

**Im going to dedicate this to two people. Kittyclaw, who is amazing and left an amazing review that I still haven't stopped rereading. And Soul Jelly; who is a really good writer and really smart!**

Her whole life, things had never been easy. Normal was something others talked about, accused her of not being. It was never something she asked for, this so called gift. The very idea was such that it made her laugh.

Then they had a name for it; telekine. The first time she heard it she as both frightened and hopeful. There was a reason for all of this, something that could explain her strangeness.

Ten years with other people, other telekines and still she had no idea how to live like this. She was on all the time. She learned how to block most of it but strong feelings and emotions were too much for her. Jeremy had become her safe harbor in the storm of the war.

He'd been there for her for so long. He knew what it was like to be ostracized. Even if it was not to the extent she had experienced.

She would never fit in with her friends and comrades. Every day she felt Ulrich's frustration, that even by joining the war and leading an elite team, he still couldn't measure up to the idealism he tried so hard to maintain.

Yumi was breaking, the others had noticed the nervous ticks, but wrapped up in their own problems they dismissed them. It hurt Aelita so badly, the young woman was not built for this kind of stress, these conditions, every morning she could feel Yumi trying desperately to piece together the bits of her psyche. Dozens of little rituals that meant so much to her, but with her enhanced perceptions, Aelita knew it was only a matter of time. She cried a little every night for her.

Odd was strange. A pyromaniac. The word meant only a fraction of what it was like. Even though in the corner of his mind he knew it was unsafe, he truly felt that fire and explosion were his friends. It was an imbalance, Aelita could actually feel it gnawing away.

She truly felt as if this power that set her aside from everyone else on the earth was a curse. And then there were the monsters. Things that she could feel, but that weren't really part of the landscape of thoughts and emotions around her.

She could feel their emptiness coming closer, even as Jeremy's machines alerted the rest to their presence. Everything moved so fast after that. Her training took over, rifle resting against her shoulder, and she spread her senses wide. Krabes, it felt like eight of them, but she could never be sure.

Thirty yards down the street one of odds explosives went off. On the edge of her mind she could feel his elation spike. She hated that. Living through everyone else's triumphs and failures. Hers never mattered. A krabe came over some of the rubble ahead of them. Her shoulder stung with the buck of the rifle, she treated the ache like a balm, it was something she needed to have to feel real. This was her own sensation, not theirs.

The krabe ducked back, the mechanical lenses that were its eyes focused in on her. Aelita pulled the trigger five times, the rifle bucking harder into her shoulder, three of the krabes eye lenses shattered, and it reeled and stumbled backwards.

Aelita felt William's determination grow so much stronger, his heavy machine gun bucking in his strong grip, tearing holes all across the face and shell of the krabe, the monster screeching electronically as it died.

Another explosion and Aelita felt two more of the blank spaces that were krabes scatter apart. Odd's grenades making short work of them. Ulrich added the fire from his own rifle to hers, and two more krabes were gone.

Another reared up over the rubble to her left, the tang of ozone searing her nostrils as its laser fired, passing close enough to her that she could feel the heat of its attack. Instinctively she recoiled, pulling away, and squeezing the trigger hammering the underside of the krabe with bullets until the slide jammed, her clip was empty and she didn't have time to reload.

The monster was nearly eight feet tall, looming terribly over her on stilt like legs that ended in curved and serrated blades that were as long as her arm. Its body was a dark red that reminded her of blood, nearly five feet around and closely resembling an armored shell. It had six mechanical lenses that protruded from under the heavy shell, several of which were blown apart, a testament to Aelita's marksmanship. An emitter that was slung under the eye lenses glowed red, powering up for another shot at her.

The krabe fired twice more, missing her only by sheer luck. She took a deep breath, reaching out and focusing hard. Her abilities, not inconsiderable on their own would have to suffice. A faint halo of light formed above her head, and an aura appeared around the krabe and it lifted up into the air.

She had to focus harder, the ache in the back of the mind growing stronger, exhausting her faster. Wings were growing behind her, giving her an angelic appearance, an after effect of her residual power. The krabe scrabbled helplessly above her, and she clenched her fist tightly, crushing the krabe before letting it fall back into the street.

Her breath left her, and it was with trembling hands that she reloaded her rifle. Being active, using her powers intentionally and violently cost her so much more stamina than anything else. She fought to still her breath, and compose herself. She swore to herself, her head ached already and she felt tired. The vestiges of wings were gone from her now, she looked normal again. If only she felt normal.

Yumi's rifle, unwieldy and desperately situational barked out, shouting its defiance to the world. A krabe burst, the last of them gone now. Aelita breathed a sigh of relief. It was over. She needed to sit down for a moment, but knew that she couldn't. Jeremy caught her eye. Somehow he was the most normal person in this group.

A technical genius, his was the one mind she didn't mind having to share space with. It intrigued her, and was something she could get lost in every night.

"Is everyone alright?" Her voice was still shaky, she hated that. Ulrich nodded, and Odd gave a thumbs up.

"We need to get moving, we won't have time to stop to set more equipment Jeremy. Aelita can just keep aware of what's around us right?"

Aelita bit back a sigh and nodded. "I can. I don't know how much longer I can keep going though. That krabe took a lot out of me." The look that Odd was shooting at her was difficult to ignore.

Ulrich gave her a look. She held his gaze steadfastly, and for the sake of making her point, she prodded him just a little with her power. The look on his face was worth the little extra effort though, as he blinked heavily and looked away.

As everyone began moving out, Aelita rested her hand momentarily on Ulrich's shoulder. He turned to face her, looking not terribly pleased. "You're doing fine. Everyone is okay, and we've made it further in than we should have by now."

He stared at her for a long moment. She could feel the conflict in him, and it made her anxious. He refused to acknowledge that this was a success. "No. but thanks anyway, and good job."

Something suddenly felt wrong. Yumi still hadn't come down from the bank. Aelita looked up, the young woman just visible up there. She was just sitting, her rifle pointing out towards the area they were heading to. Curious, Aelita focused her mind on Yumi, and in a disorienting change of perspective saw things through her eyes.

The rifle scope distorted everything in a strange manner, and Aeilta was far from accustomed to it. From what she could make out however, was that Yumi had spotted the tower they were searching for. It was a dark mass that rose like a spire around the wreckage of the buildings around it. Monsters known as mantas were circling it.

A sudden biting pain in her shoulder threw her out of Yumi. The heavy echo of the gunshot rang out, just as it had earlier, accidentally announcing their presence. Everyone looked up, Ulrich scowling. Yumi fired again, Odd grinned insanely, already working through his pouches to set up more explosives. Aelita shook her head; she really wasn't ready for more fighting, she was tired.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

**A/N: This is chapter three! [I know, three updates in a week? What's going on here?] This chapter will follow Odd, since it's fun to write from his perspective. I don't know if I should do Jeremy or Yumi next, what do you guys think?  
Also, this goes out to AelitaOfTheWolves. I'm glad you're enjoying this so far!**

Yumi's gun fired again. So somewhere something died. And that was fine. Odd searched through his satchel, finding what he was looking for. "Hi little buddy, wanna make a bang?" he grinned, looking around and quickly spying a wall of rubble. In the back of his head, he could already see where the weight was distributed. Which rocks were precarious and which were load bearing. Instinctively he knew where to place his explosives.

Ambling up the rocks he pulled a few smaller ones out, tossing them away. With a cavity created he primed his explosive charge and slipped it in under a loadbearing piece of concrete. Yumi's rifle barked again, and from his vantage point he could see what was coming after them.

More krabes and several tarantulas. Above and behind him Yumi took another shot, and one of the Krabes staggered and collapsed. Odd let out a whoop, drawing a compact machine pistol from its holster, and hanging onto a piece of rebar he pulled the trigger, the small weapon bucking in his hand.

This was his favorite part. The rapid discharge and the feel of his guns bucking in his hands. The clatter of shells as he drained the clip. One of the tarantulas staggered back. He hurt it but hadn't killed it, that was disappointing. Two of the krabes were firing back, their shots coming awfully close to hitting him.

His deft hands replaced the clip while balancing on the rebar, and he returned fire, bringing down the tarantula.

"Yes!"

His elation was short lived though; he felt a sharp tug on his chest and was suddenly falling through the air. He heard Aelita shout something from below him, and then he hit the ground hard enough to have the breath knocked out of him.

"That wasn't fun."

Aelita was kneeling over him. Her face blurry and out of focus.

"Odd, are you alright?

"I feel like pennies."

She blinked in confusion.

He ran his hand over his chest, there was a heavy indentation in his body armor, and his ribs hurt. Thank goodness for ceramics he thought to himself. Aelita and Jeremy were both looking at him strangely. "I'm okay. Really." He patted his chest.

Aelita smiled half-heartedly. He realized she was probably in his head right now. She frowned at him.

"Can we do that again?"

In answer a laser blast flew by, followed by several more. Aelita spun away, firing her rifle into the approaching monsters. Ulrich and Jeremy added their own weapons to the fusillade, holding the monsters back.

Something was tingling in the back of his head, and then he remembered. He put his hand in his pouch, and suddenly panicked. The detonator wasn't there. Where was it? He needed it. He needed that explosion. Those rocks had to fall.

He cast about, unsure where to start looking. Then he saw it. It was up by where the monsters were. There was no way he could get there without getting hit again. He didn't like being hurt, it was too painful. A krabe fired at him, and out of reflex he fired both of his pistols at it, hosing it with bullets and shattering its eye lenses and laser gun.

Blinded the krabe feel backwards, slamming into another one. Aelita finished it off with a burst from her rifle, and Jeremy and Ulrich took another one down. William's heavy weapon cut through a tarantula, but even as those fell more were suddenly pushing into the gap.

"Odd! Do something productive!"

"I can't, I don't have the detonator anymore!"

Ulrich and William both swore.

Jeremy looked from Odd to Aelita, panic in his features. Odd really didn't get why though; this was just more of a challenge than they thought.

Then Odd had an idea. It was a strange one, but it would probably work.

Firing his pistol as he ran he slid into cover next to Aelita.

"Can you set off the explosives?"

She didn't acknowledge him, instead only firing her rifle in slow bursts. He rested his hand on her shoulder, startling her. She stared at him dumbfounded for a moment.

"What do you want?" she spoke a little louder than needed, he thought, he was just right next to her after all.

He asked again, but his voice was lost in the sudden sound of William firing his machine gun again. She nodded. He wasn't sure how she heard him, but in the corner of his mind he figured it didn't matter, he was going to get his explosion.

Aelita went suddenly still, he waved his hand in front of her face, but she didn't react. Then his explosives went off. Adrenaline surged through his system and it seemed like time slowed down. Everything happened just as he had known it would. The largest chunks of concrete were thrown out and down, crushing several of the Krabes that were standing in the street, and behind that all the rest of the rubble piled up, effectively cutting the team off from the rest of the monsters.

Odd let out a whoop of victory, ignoring the pain in his ribs to dance about a little, not noticing Aelita slump to the ground next to him.

"Yesss, ha ha, Odd does it again."

"Well done Odd." Compliments William, his ears still ringing after the blast. He kneels down to help Aelita get back up on her feet.

"What's wrong angel?"

Aelita shook her head, her skin paler than usual. "Not an angel." She muttered. That unwillingness to put up with his nicknames put him on edge. Usually she took it in good grace, maybe only going as far as scowling at him.

"Really what's wrong?"

"She needs to rest Odd." Jeremy cut in. This stuff takes a lot out of her.

Odd frowned. "Okay, sorry. It's not like it's my fault. Yumi's the one that got us caught."

The second the words were out of his mouth he regretted them, and looked around sheepishly. Luckily for him the tall Asian girl wasn't within earshot. She might have boxed his ears in. everyone looked over towards Ulrich, who was busy inspecting the roadblock they had just created.

Surprising him, Aelita was the one to speak up first. "That's not fair, and you know it. She's under a lot of pressure."

"So are the rest of us." Snapped Ulrich from across the street. "We have to destroy this tower. That's our mission."

Aelita sighed, and Odd shrugged. The adrenaline was working out of his system, and now he was feeling rained and tired. Probably not as bad as Aelita, but still, a rest sounded good right about now.

"We need to get moving; we can backtrack a couple of block and then swing back around to the east. We still have a lot of ground to cover."

Jeremy stood up, holstering the heavy pistol he used and picking up his computer case. "Ulrich, we can give her at least an hour can't we?"

Ulrich shook his head, and looked up into the building where Yumi was. "Get down; we have to keep moving before more of them find us!"

She stuck her arm out and waved an acknowledgement and began to climb down. Odd holstered his pistols. The mechanisms built into the holsters slotting fresh clips into the guns. William as dressing down his machine gun, taking it apart so that its cumbersome size didn't get in the way while picking through the rubble.

Everyone picked up their packs and began to make their way back the way they came. Yumi was in the back of the line, with Aelita. Forcing himself to keep moving, Odd made a game of naming all the largest pieces of rubble they passed.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/n Chapter four, Obviously. This one is with William, as I didn't really feel like writing in either Yumi or Jeremy. **

**That said, I'm not sure how much I like this chapter. The whole point is that William doesn't fit with this group, and as an outsider looking in, all he can really see are the flaws of each member.**

Chapter 4

Aelita was the creepiest person-if she was even really a person- that he had ever had the misfortune of meeting. The others would probably be angry with him for ever actually voicing such a thing, but he didn't care. He knew that she knew. That was enough.

She was always in their heads. He couldn't stand that. His thoughts were his, it was a private place. She had no right to go there. The problem was that he couldn't confront her about it.

The first time William met her was when he was assigned to this team, these Lyoko people. They were supposed to be among the best. They didn't seem to care that his last team had been wiped out. The sniper was even kind of cute, if you were into the whole damaged and vulnerable thing.

Pink hair? Who would ever wear their hair in such a color? She had stand out like a sore thumb everywhere. Not something you want when you're on the battlefield. The young woman was shorted than he was, but not by much, and very slight of build. Her pale skin was made all the more obvious in contrast to her ridiculous hair

"Hi William, I'm Aelita." She'd stuck her hand out to him. It was a good thing they were alone at the time. She shouldn't have known his name, and there was a strange pressure in his head. His lip had twitched.

"You're one of those mind rapists aren't you?"

Her hand dropped to her side, and a hard expression was set on her face. Thus had started a less than enjoyable working relationship.

He was far stronger than she was physically, but he would never forget the ease with which she had pinned him to the nearest wall, both his arms locked to his sides.

William smiled as they made their way through the streets. All things considered, he had been right. She shouldn't have been let out here. It was weakness like that that cost lives. A lesson he learned the hard way. A lesson these people weren't going to get a second chance at.

Half the team was crazy. It made no sense to him at all. Odd gets shot and thinks it was fun. Did these fools have no respect for what could happen?

Yumi should have been drummed out for her unending mistakes and screw-ups. Aelita wasn't even human.

Now they had to backtrack and start over. This was horribly frustrating.

Two hours into their march Aelita dropped to the ground. Yumi Odd and Jeremy immediately dropped to their knees to help her up. William tapped Ulrich on the shoulder. "Something's wrong with your telekine."

Ulrich shot him a nasty look and then ran to her side. "Aelita are you okay?" they helped her up, and she stood on shaky legs. William huffed.

Yumi was suddenly in his face, literally inches away from him. He could smell the burned out adrenalin in her system she was so close to him. He took a step back from her, and she pressed just as close again.

"What do you want?" he snapped.

"Maybe the question is what do you want? You clearly don't want to be here, you hate all of us, we never asked for you, and we aren't so vicious to you! You're going to try and play the broken soldier game at us? At me? You're an idiot if you think for one second I don't think you were responsible for your entire team being wiped out."

William was dumbstruck, having no idea how to respond to the crazy woman that was now in his face, shouting at him.

A hand appeared on Yumi's shoulder, pulling her away. "Calm down. He isn't worth it." William watched warily as Odd pulled Yumi away. Yumi broke away from him for a moment. William knew what was coming, and braced himself. Yumi's fist never came though. He breathed a sigh of relief.

"Anything can happen out there. Its best to have people that care about you. Remember that William."

The coldness in her voice was worrisome than her words.

They made camp up in another blown out building. Aelita was curled up in a corner and asleep before they had even set up a perimeter. Ulrich took first watch, and in what William knew was done out of spite, he was given second, ensuring that he would only get some sleep.

He settled in, his back against a steel girder. His sidearm not so subtly resting in his lap. Just as he was falling asleep he heard someone settle in

"You need to start treating them with respect. This is the best team in the region. The applicant list is miles long. You were assigned to us by what I'm sure was an error."

This had to be a joke. "Respect? Really? Nothing they do is ever good enough for the great Ulrich Stern."

"Yeah, but they understand that. I understand them. If you're only going to look at their flaws? Then not one of us has a single reason to be in service to our people, much less out here, doing this. I mean, look at Yumi. Or Odd. There's something legitimately wrong with them, but they're the best in the world at what they do."

He stood up. "Maybe your just to jaded to see that, I don't know, and I really don't care. Just remember, Aelita's in all our heads, whether she wants to be or not. She'll tell me if you're planning some kind of treachery.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

**A/N: **

**So here is the fifth chapter, I think I have a better idea of where I'm going to take this story, as for the most part I've been just winging it. **

**This is jeremy's chapter, I hope you enjoy it, and review if you can please. **

**Also, Kitty, why for how as no love for Athame? **

The night passed quickly, but uncomfortably. Jeremy had to sit through third watch, which was unpleasant, but at least nothing happened. So he watched Aelita. It was nice to have a little time where everyone wasn't fighting, or worse, in a fight. Yesterday took a lot out of her. She would be extremely hungry in the morning.

To lift up and crush a krabe like that was an incredible feat, even for someone as skilled and developed as she was. Jeremy couldn't even image the effort it would have taken her. She stirred from her slumber not long before the dawn, uncurling her thin body and stretching.

"Morning."

She smiled at him, yawning and pressing her hands to the sides of her head, like she had a migraine.

"Are you okay? You didn't stir at all during the night."

"Yumi's having another terror. It hurts."

The petite girl curled into his side, pressing her face into his chest. Across the small room yumi lay, her arms wrapped tightly around her pack, her legs twitching in time with the clenching and unclenching of her fingers.

"It's okay." She nodded and he stroked her hair slowly, trying to calm her down.

She nodded into his hand and sighed. "Ulrich and William were fighting again."

"I know, he doesn't like any of us."

"Especially me, I freak him out." Jeremy was silent.

"I know." He closed his eyes. He had nothing to keep from her anyway, he didn't care if she was in his head all the time, but he felt like he could at least understand what it was like for her to be in everyone else's.

His laptop beeped. It was seven o'clock. Ulrich and Odd were already stirring. He sighed to himself. Thus ended the peace of the morning.

Everyone had their own little ritual when they awoke. His was to check his computer and tracking equipment, dress in his armor and take care of whatever needed to be done from the day before. Odd had to count out all of his charges and explosives, Ulrich disassembled and cleaned his rifle, as did William. Yumi played with all the range finders and knobs on her rifle, treating it with almost religious scrutiny. Aelita ate.

He knew that as a telekine she was allotted more rations than the rest of them , as it was expected that she would burn through far more calories in a day than anyone else. So every time they stopped or there was a chance to do so, she had a ration bar in her hand, munching away. It was remarkable how she was still able to keep such a svelte figure even when she was eating all the time.

She was already on her third bar. They were tasteless lumps of dehydrated protein and vitamins. Jeremy hated them.

Yumi bolted upright, panic on her face as she cast about desperately for her rifle. William kicked it over to her with a grunt, and she lovingly ran her hands over the stock, clearing away the imperfections left by the dirt and grime.

"Quiet night?" Ulrich asked. Jeremy nodded.

"A little movement to the east. There were some krabes and possibly tarantulas running around. They're all off the grid we set up though. So I don't know what they were doing."

Ulrich shrugged. "As long as they're out of our hair I'm happy." He peered out through a dirty window that had somehow survived all this time intact. "It's only a few more miles to the tower. We should be able to make it there by midday."

Aelita nodded and slung her rifle over her shoulder. Ulrich was already busy reassembling his.

Midday was just passing by when the tower was in sight by the naked eye. The march had been rough, but quiet. Which was exactly what Jeremy liked. He looked up at the tower; it was a massive thing, looming easily fifty or sixty feet into the air. At the base it was easily twenty feet around, a massive and resilient thing. Matte black and intimidating. No one really understood how they worked, though it was certain that it controlled the monsters around it.

Speaking of. Two massive spheres rested at the feet of the tower and around them several more krabes and a scattering of the tiny kankrelats. All around him everyone else was slipping into what cover they could manage to find. All around the tower had been cleared of rubble and debris, leaving what was essentially a kill zone leading up to the tower.

Yumi had already found a spot to hide away in, and Ulrich was there with her, his rifle up to his shoulder. Jeremy sighed and pulled his pistol from its holster. The heavy gun felt awkward in his hand. Aelita's hand on his shoulder was nice, and it reassured him a little.

Yumi's gun barked out, and one of the krabes staggered back and fell over, one of its legs blown off. What could only be described as panic set in amongst the monsters. Both of the mega tanks opened and closed their shells, searching for their attacker but unwilling to expose themselves to more precision fire. The kankrelats began to race about, several of them banging into each other and falling down.

Then the krabe started firing at them.

Jeremy shrugged, it was only a matter of time anyway. Ulrich Aelita and william all opened fire, the combined weight of fire dragged the other krabe down and destroyed it. The kankrelats began to fire back now, the little debris that was around the small team managed to soak up the vast majority of laser blasts. Despite the general uselessness of a single kankrelat, when you got a large number of them together at once, they could be very dangerous.

Odd raced past, his machine pistols chattering with rapid fire, most of his shots going wide, but managing to hit one of the kankrelats. They fired back, and Odd tumbled to the ground. Unfortunately Jeremy had no choice but to refocus on what was going on around him instead. A laser bolt impacted hard against his laptop case, throwing him to the ground with its kinetic energy.

Aelita cried out and threw two of the tiny monsters into one of the tanks just as it was about to fire at Odd. Jarred by the impact its shot went wide, the intense energy leaving a burning trail along the ground only inches from Odd's head.

The other tank had grown wise, and spun up onto its side, opening up to fire its deadly weapon in a horizontal arc. Reacting by instinct Jeremy's pistol bucked in his hand. Bullets sparked off the armor of the tank, and it fired again.

Dropping everything Jeremy leapt into a flying tackle and caught Aelita from the side, bearing her down to the ground, the vicious energy blast scoring her hair and singing his. She shrieked in freight, both at Jeremy tackling her and the heat of the laser blast passing so close. It was only by sheer luck that everyone else was in cover or at least low enough that they were safe.

Jeremy fired the last few round from his pistol, catching a kankrelat and wrecking it. A grenade exploded next to the tank forcing it to close again. Odd whooped from where he was laying on the ground, apparently unhurt.

Jeremy rolled his eyes and replaced his pistols clip with a deft movement. Aelita rolled away from him slowly, her winged visage beginning to return to her. Even in the middle of a battlefield she looked beautiful.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: This is Yumi's chapter. I've been waiting for this for a while now, mostly because it was a lot of fun to write. I want to thank Elemental Hybrid for following this project, and, the wonderful Kittyclaw for writing me a piece of Fan-fiction based off of this story!**

**So if william's last team is of interest to you, go check out **The Xana Confederation: Broken Soldier.

Chapter 6

Ulrich's presence next to her was as reassuring as it ever had been. But these days that reassurance only went so far. She had seen too much, been through more than could have been expected. There were days when sleep eluded her tauntingly, and other where it came to her like an old friend, bringing only more pain. She no longer knew which she preferred.

She had an ache; it nestled deep within her very soul. They all pretended to understand what it was like for her, but she bore scars far deeper than those that marred her skin. Only Aelita truly grasped what it was like, end even then, Yumi refused to let her in. it was an act of kindness, to deny her friend that pain.

The heavy stock of her rifle felt better, even than Ulrich standing guard over her. It was in the mechanism of the weapon that she could lose herself fully, the hard wooden stock and smooth barrel helped the most to sooth her spirit.

It was in that place that she rested now, dropping another of Xana's abominations with a precision shot. The auto loader built into the weapon ejected the spent shell casing and slotted a new one in its place. A range this close made it a challenge. The little ones jerked back and forth, making it hard to predict where they were going to be.

They weren't really worth hitting with one of the heavy shells that were stored in the rifle, so instead she refocused on the mega tanks. One had just closed, and she took the shot.

Her finger tightened imperceptibly on the trigger, releasing the mechanism and striking the back of the shell with the pin, sparking the powder and sending the heavy gauge shell howling down the long barrel. Deep cut grooves setting it into a controlled high velocity spin that ensured an accuracy of up to two miles. Ports on the sides of the gun breathed out the tiny amount to smoke and deadened the flash from the shot.

The bullet that leapt from the barrel was massive, nearly as wide as Yumi's thumb, and just as long. Made of a hardened alloy sheathed in regular steel, the bullet was designed to pierce the heaviest of armor. Nothing she had ever fired at had gotten back up after being hit with one of these.

The bullet struck the tank, half in inch to the left of the seam between its two halves with a resounding pang, and glanced off to the side ineffectively. Through her scope Yumi could see the dent in the armor, just sitting there and mocking her.

Fury welled up inside of her, the abomination sat there and she was sure that she could hear it laughing at her from inside its metal shell. Two more shots from her rifle, as quickly as the autoloader would allow, both leaving similar dents. She didn't realize it, but she was screaming. Ulrich had even stopped reloading his rifle to stare at her.

A red light blinked up on the screen of her scope, the hopper built into the stock of the rifle was empty, and she was out of ammo. She recoiled as if stung, and didn't hear Aelita screaming at her from behind cover. She looked like an angel though, wings and everything.

Her whole world shook, and Odd went scampering past. The kankrelats were gone, and now only her mega tank remained. Everyone opened fire on it, sparks pinging away all over its heavy shell. The tank spun about, and still closed tight hurled itself at Odd.

With a nimble leap the explosives expert ducked and spun away, causing the tank to crash into an upturned sheet of concrete. Acting quickly, Odd slapped a charge onto the flank of the Megatank. Acting only by instinct, Yumi's pistol found itself in her hand, she squeezed off two shots, setting off the explosive charge and engulfing the tank in an inferno that blew back her hair and buffeted her face with the backwash of heat.

Odd picked himself up of the ground, gaping at her.

"I had the detonator for that one."

Yumi merely starred forwards, her chest heaving as she fought to control her breath.

Ulrich's hand rested on her shoulder snapping her back into reality. "Are you going to be okay?"

His voice was more of a whisper, but it carried easily to everyone else. Odd and Jeremy busied themselves with whatever was at hand. Aelita's shining wings were fading away, and she was rummaging through her pack looking for something to eat. Only William kept his icy stare focused on Yumi.

"Ulrich, you need to have her committed when we return." He undid the strap of his helmet, running his hand through his hair. "I'm going to be filling a complaint against her. She needs to be gone."

He turned and began picking over the enemies, the heavy blade of his sword making certain that those few that were merely damaged were destroyed.

Ulrich's hand gripped her shoulder harder, the armored padding of her suit keeping it from hurting her. "I am not broken." She whispered, almost more to herself than to anyone else.

William laughed.

Everyone had given up the pretense of ignoring this confrontation. Aelita had even paused in her eating, half a ration bar in her mouth.

Yumi tore herself from Ulrich's grasp, and leapt the distance onto William. Or that had been her plan anyway. A shimmering barrier appeared in front of her and threw her down. She looked to Aelita, the girl standing with her arm outstretched and vestiges of her wings returning.

"Yumi, don't. It's not worth it."

Yumi snarled, and threw herself into the barrier, shattering it like glass and sending Aelita to her knees. William met her with his sword, the heavy blade resting upon her breast, the point digging into the padded armor bringing her up short.

A metal fan was in her hand and she swept Williams sword away, only for him to strike her down with a cruel blow to the temple with the hilt of his blade.

"Hey! No, you stop now!"

Aelita intervened between the two, and with her hands spread apart another barrier separated them forcefully. Odd and Ulrich grabbed Yumi by her arms and held her back.

William grinned at her. "It'll be good to have you gone."

Yumi spat on the ground, and wiped at the trickle of blood on the side of her head.

"You're both out of line! I'll have you both cited for misconduct when we get back. Get cleaned up and back in place. We're not done here." Ulrich snapped his fingers at them, and combined with a sharp glare had everyone separated and back to work.

Jeremy handed Aeilta another pair of ration bars. She immediately tore into the wrappers and started shoving them into her mouth.

Yumi took the opportunity to brush past William. "I wish Milly could see you now, Murderer."

William stopped short, clenching his fists. Aelita snapped her head around, and threw them both into a pile of rock, pinning them there. They both tried to struggle, but her advanced powers pinned them hard. Her wings had become less than vestigial; they arced out from her slight form and closed in around her, making it hard to tell just how much she was shaking.

The one thing that was not obscured however was her face. The normally kind expression was gone, and in its place was a young woman that was tired and worn down, and now ready to enact her darkest desires.

"I have to live through every action you two take against each other, every time it hurts you; it hurts me just as much. Well here it is; I am done. I will tolerate no more, I will not condone this. Neither of you are perfect, and that is the end of it. Do you understand?"

She flicked her fingers, and against their will their heads nodded. Her wings flickered, and suddenly they were both released and they dropped to the ground followed closely by Aelita. Jeremy was at her side, helping her up, and William and Yumi both took advantage of her distraction to glare at each other.

Odd offered Yumi a ration bar, which she gratefully took. She felt drained and stretched out and just wanted to sleep, but there was still much to do. "How many of those has Aelita eaten today?"

Yumi shrugged, picking up her rifle and lovingly wiping it down. "At least twenty that I know of."

Odd gaped at the telekine, now curled up against a sheet of concrete. "Those things are a thousand calories each. That's insane!"

"Be glad you aren't a telekine I suppose."

Both of them did their best to hide their shock at Ulrich's comment. He tugged on Yumi's shoulder. "We need to discuss what happened today."


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: **

**And so we are back to Ulrich. There are some very difficult choices to be made by him, and loyalties are going to be tested and split. **

**I hope everyone enjoys, leave a review if you do!**

CHAPTER 7

Ulrich saw the set of her jaw and knew he was going to have a fight on his hands. A fight with Yumi would be loud and ugly, and he wanted no part of it. His hand was raised to forestall any argument on her part; and with his hand heavy on her shoulder he pulled her further away from the group.

"You're getting worse. The 'accident' yesterday, and now this today? There is no excuse for you to be acting like this."

She looked down at the ground, scuffing her boot against a rock. Looking for all the world like a child, which dishearteningly, was something she had never had a chance to be. None of them had. It was hard not to take pity on her. Of everyone here she had by far the most difficult life.

"I'll do better, I promise. I won't let it happen again."

As much as he wanted to believe her, he knew that it was unlikely to happen.

"We can't keep charity cases on this team. Yumi, I would hate to see it happen, but odds are you won't be with us after this."

There were actually tears in her eyes, running down her cheeks and leaving incongruous stripes through the haze of dirt and grime that covered them all.

She dropped to her knees, clutching at his pant leg. "How can you do this to me?" she demanded.

"I have to make decisions for the good of the team, you know that."

She stared up at him for a long time, and he did his best to meet her gaze, but ultimately was unable. When he looked away uncomfortably she pulled a knife from her boot and slid the blade up her left shoulder, cutting through her heavy sleeve and exposing her skin.

From her shoulder down past her elbow was a dense script of names tattooed around her arm. Nearly all of them had a line drawn through them.

Seeing that script made ulrich's arm tingle in recognition. They had both had the same list tattooed at the same time.

"Everyone one of us had the survivors names inked on our bodies. Mine is in the same place on your arm as yours is on mine. Five million of dead, and only one hundred and seventy eight survivors. There's only seven names left Ulrich. When we heard about Theo's team, we both had to scratch out three names."

He opened his mouth to cut her off, but she wouldn't let him;

"Victoire par le souvenir. Victory through remembrance. We all swore that day. First thing I'm doing is having my name scratched out when we get back."

He stared at her, unable to comprehend what she was threatening.

"You wouldn't."

"There was a time when I had hoped we could have been together after all this, but now I understand that if I mean so little to you, that it would be best if I was forgotten. No point in striving for a future when you try so hard to take it away. Just to appease a murderer."

She rose up and stalked away, leaving him alone for the time being. He shook his head. This wasn't something he wanted to deal with, but he had to wonder if the cost was going to be too high in this case. He would have to find a chance to talk with Jeremy or Odd.

Speaking of, they were due to check in with him on their progress with the tower.

Odd was surveying the tower for demolition, which literally consisted of standing back with his tongue sticking out and looking at things over his thumb. Aelita was curled up in a tight ball behind the rubble he and Yumi had used for cover earlier, and Jeremy was walking slowly around the base of the tower, one of his computers in his hand.

"it wont be too difficult to bring down. See that building there?" Odd pointed up at half a wall that was still standing on the other side of the open area. "I can get that to fall down, and it'll drag the tower down too. We just need to give ample room. Lots of collateral damage."

Ulrich nodded, trying to at least act like he was still fully focused on what needed to be done.

"Do you have enough charges?"

"If I can have the last of William's grenades than yeah, easy."

Ulrich nodded slowly; "okay, get it set up. I don't want to stay here any longer than necessary."

Jeremy was on the other side of the tower now.

"How's Yumi?"

Of course that was the first thing he would ask. Ulrich mumbled something unintelligible.

"You can't let her leave the team. She's one of us. One of you. How many are left now? From the moon colony? Ten?"

This wasn't something Ulrich was expecting. Jeremy never challenged his decisions; he was always dutiful and accepted his lot and role gladly.

"There are seven. Even if I wanted, William's formal complaint will mandate a performance review. She won't be able to fake her way through another one."

"Then either we cheat, or we lose William."

That took Ulrich back. Never in a million years would he have expected to hear something like that from Jeremy. Every word in that sentence was essentially treason.

"There isn't a sniper in the world that can match her, I know." Jeremy nodded in agreement. The only person that had come close in years had been Milly.

"Aelita will leave." It was just a statement, but hidden within it Ulrich knew was the implication that Jeremy would go with her. That was half his team. Everything he had worked so hard to build up would be gone.

"Then I guess we have to find a way to keep Yumi, don't we?"

"It shouldn't be too difficult. You could always let her shoot him."

A smile tugged at Ulrich's lips. That would certainly make Yumi happy, at least for a little while.

"How's this coming?" he indicated the computer readings.

"It's good data, nothing we haven't seen before though. I think next we need to try to capture a live specimen. To watch how systems interact. If we can break into the communications, then we can explain why some are so much more lethal than others."

"You mean like what separates a Krabe from a Blok?" Ulrich had to admit that he was definitely intrigued. The idea of capturing a monster alive was insane, but still, it would be valuable information they could hopefully exploit.

A gunshot rang out in the distance, on the other side of the building Odd was going to destroy. As if on cue, everyone's heads swiveled to the source of the noise, unable to actually make anything out through the tangle of cement and rebar. Two more shots broke the growing silence.

"That's a Bower .50!" shouted Odd. "Yumi's in trouble."

William huffed, and found himself staring down the barrel of one of Odd's machine pistol. Another shot echoed through the ruins.

"We help teammates. Or we aren't teammates. Got it?"

Without waiting for an answer, Odd bounded away, chasing after Ulrich and Jeremy, pausing only to rouse Aelita who quickly drew her own weapon close to herself and chased after the rest.

As they closed in, the sounds of laser blasts could be heard. Something Ulrich took to be a good thing, if the monsters had gotten her already, then they wouldn't still have been shooting. Her pistol fired again, and a kankrelat stumbled into view with half of its body blow away in a mass of tangled metal.

Ulrich and Odd rounded a corner, hugging tight to the edge of the building. A quick survey of the scene revealed two more tangled kankrelats and a headless tarantula. Odd spun around the corner and sprayed the area the rest of the monsters were clustered together, taking out two more of the little ones.

"Six kankrelats, three tarantulas. I don't see her." Her pistol barked again, and another kankrelat was thrown backwards. "we know she's still fighting though?" Odds voice managed to sound hopeful despite what they were up against.

Three of the monsters turned around, firing their lasers and blasting craters in the wall Odd and Ulrich were using as cover, failing to hit them but managing well enough to keep them from sticking their heads out.

In an act almost as foolish as it was brave, odd angled his body so that only his hand and pistol were exposed, and fired an entire clip into the kankrelats, scattering them for a few precious seconds and managing to empty his weapon.

Jeremy and Aelita appeared behind them, acting as much needed reinforcements. Even if Aelita was stumbling as she ran. Even if Jeremy only had a heavy gauge pistol. Even if William was walking down from the tower in the near distance.

The stock of Ulrich's rifle felt good against his shoulder, Yumi had wanted him to make a choice. In doing so, even if he hadn't realized it at the time, it had been made for him. It felt good to be on the right path for once in his life.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N Okay, here is Aelita! Things ga little heated in this, and there are a couple parts at the end where it gets a bit messy. I'm not going to spoil it for you, but if you're squeamish, just a warning. The last third is something you might want to avoid. **

**Read and review, I love getting feedback from you guys. **

**This goes out to my newest fan, Desert-Chan**

**Chapter 8**

Gunshots woke her up. Groggily Aelita checked her watch, seeing that only twenty minutes had passed. She swore, and was then hit with Odd and Jeremy's panic, Ulrich's determination. Odd was shaking her awake, panic on his face.

She swore again, and pulled her rifle close. They weren't under attack, but Yumi was in trouble. Something had happened, but she didn't know what it was. Jeremy took her hand and helped her up. He had a grim expression on his face, and William featured prominently in his thoughts.

"What happened? What did William do?"

It scarred her just how shaky her voice was. She was hungry and tired, and she felt weak. Jeremy shook his head. "No, Yumi, wandered off after a fight with Ulrich."

More gunshots, the rapid fire of Odd's pistols.

Jeremy helped her run up the street, his arm around her waist. She did her best to ignore how much he enjoyed touching her, even in a situation like this, and focused on reloading her rifle for the fight.

They found Ulrich and Odd pinned down at the entrance to a courtyard. A low stone wall shielded them from the worst of the enemies' laser blasts. She could feel Yumi on the other side of the yard. Just on the edge of her power. It felt like she was hurt, but Aelita couldn't be certain.

There were over a dozen monsters between them and her.

She aimed her rifle over the wall and fired blindly, her arms aching at the effort. She couldn't tell if she had hit anything, but it gave Odd the time he needed to roll a grenade down among the monsters. Aelita turned away, shielding herself from the shrapnel as the grenade went off, scattering the components of several kankrelats.

Aelita was moving before Ulrich could even issue the order. She was over the wall as he was ordering them to move in, her rifle biting into her shoulder as she hammered a dazed kankrelat with the rest of her clip.

Knowing exactly what Odd and Jeremy were doing she dropped behind them, resting on her knee to slot in a new clip, letting them hold off the remaining monsters.

Two heavy gunshots rang out from where Yumi was pinned down, and a tarantula staggered back. Two more tarantulas appeared from further into the courtyard, firing into the group.

Two blasts arched past Aelita, so close that she could feel the heat and smell the ozone that accompanied the lasers. Instinctively she ducked away, and then dropped onto her hands and knees, pain coursing through her shoulder and side.

Jeremy cried out at the same time she did, dropping down and clutching at his side. All around them both was a sudden flurry of activity. Aelita could hear the distant sound of a heavy gun firing; sharp determination blossomed in her head, but nowhere near strong enough to drown out the pain.

She pulled her hand away from her side, where it was clutching desperately at the plated ceramic armor that encased her torso. She starred at her hand dumbly, seeing neither blood nor burn. Another flare of pain coursed through her, and she struggled to her feet.

Ulrich was suddenly in front of her, casings flying from his gun as he fired up at the monsters. The tinkling of them falling and hitting the ground sounded musical to her. Sudden insight gripped her, and she realized she was in shock. Looking around her she found something that froze her blood.

Jeremy was on the ground, stark red blood running freely from his shoulder. Odd was already picking him up and pulling him back by the time Aelita was yelling for help. William shoved her to the side, pushing past both her and Odd to stand with Ulrich. Taking advantage of what cover they could, she helped Odd strip Jeremy's ceramic armor off, trying her best to ignore the discoloration of the armor, and the acrid smell of the burn.

"Is he going to be okay?"

She wasn't thinking straight, all she knew was Jeremy's pain, Odd's panic, and Ulrich and William's determination. There was so much chaos going on around her that she no longer even knew where she was within the storm, this was why she absolutely hated what she was.

"He's going to be okay. I got shot too, and look at how sprightly I am! Hand me a bandage."

She nodded, wiping her hand on her face to get rid of the tears she hadn't known she was shedding. She pulled Jeremy's pack over to her and rifled through it, pulling out a basic medical kit. She pulled out what Odd was going to need, and ran her hand over her face again.

"Odd, get over here! Now!"

The anger in Ulrich's voice was almost enough for Aelita to drop the bandage she was helping wrap around Jeremy's shoulder. Odd rose to his feet, and drew his pistols. "I'll be back, you're doing fine."

Aelita nodded and cinched the bandage tight. She looked down at both of her hands, covered in the blood of her friend, and reached up to wipe her face again, there was something wet and half dried on it. She stopped herself, and starred at the hand she had been wiping her face with.

"Oh god." She whimpered to herself, and leaned over to retch out the contents of her stomach. She clasped her hand to her sides, rocking slowly until she felt a hand on her hip.

She looked down at Jeremy, he squeezed her hip a little, trying to show he was okay, but she could still feel nearly all the pain he was feeling. The painkillers Odd had injected in his system had dulled it, but it was still bad.

He smiled at her, and she was compelled to smile back.

"I'm okay, really. Just, don't leave?"

She nodded, just as something huge exploded not far away in the courtyard, and another massive spike of pain and anger speared into her mind.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N This is Odd's chapter, as I'm sure you can see, there is a bit of a pattern to these, but regardless, here we are. I'm excited to say that this will resolve the cliffhanger that I left everyone with last update, so I hope everyone likes it. I'm sorry this one's so short, but it just ends in a good place. **

**This one is dedicated to Rosemea, John Thatcher and A Small Voice! Thank you all for favoriting and following. And a thank you to everyone that has left me a review! I'm so glad to see that so many people are enjoying this story. **

Chapter 9

"Odd, get over here! Now!"

He looked up from his work, deftly tying off the bandages he was applying. He drew his pistols a rose up, offer Aelita a tight smile. "I'll be back, you're doing fine." She smiled back and nodded.

He stepped over Jeremy, breaking into a dead run and swinging back into the old courtyard. Immediately he was forced to duck back down, and saw the problem they were facing. Most of the kankrelats were dead, but the roof that was once a classy overlook for outdoor dining was now hiding the bulk of what had to be nearly a dozen tarantulas.

"Where's Yumi?" he shouted, trying to keep his head down enough that he wasn't a target but still trying to get a good look at the building.

"Inside." William practically grunted his answer, leveling his machine gun and firing off a heavy burst at the monsters. "We should just write her off. If they're focused on us then she's probably gone by now."

Odd did a double take, dropping one of his pistols and then desperately trying to catch it before it hit the ground, accidentally kicking it into a block of stone.

William snorted.

Odd however was suddenly inspired.

He leapt to his feet and shouted his out his brilliance.

And was thrown backwards by a glancing blow to his armor from a kankrelat he hadn't noticed. "I see how it is." He muttered to himself, firing his gun at the tiny little annoyance until it was gone.

Ducking back down he pulled his pack off and rooted through it, stringing together a loop of grenades and a set of heavy charges.

"is that safe?"

"for us? Maybe?"

Ulrich stared at him like he was an idiot. "What about for Yumi?"

"Huh, oh, yeah. I figure it's probably maybe not that bad?"

"I'll shoot you myself."

Odd swallowed. "Only one way to find out then?" He stood up and threw the satchel of explosives down the courtyard and into the building. Three seconds later everything shook and exploded.

Fire lanced up and outwards and literally obliterated the section of veranda that the tarantulas were perched upon and wiped them out. The three of them were all forced to duck down to avoid the rock particles.

"Well that was fun?"

"I'll kill you if you just killed her." Ulrich's voice was all kinds of cold.

William snorted. "That's a lot of paperwork." Both of them glared at him, but odd couldn't help but grin a little.

"So now we can go find her?"

Ulrich reloaded his rifle and William and Odd followed him falling in behind him, providing cover.

The inside of the building was smoky and claustrophobic. The air actually tasted of concrete and make breathing difficult. William coughed to clear his throat.

Odd was the first person to see something moving. Deeper in the shell of the lobby there was a slab of concrete that was precariously balanced against what was once a table and the wall it was pressed into. Two quick hand signals from Ulrich showed that he too had seen it and they fanned out, approaching slowly but hopefully.

Something screeched mechanically and dragged itself from the far side of the room, all three of the soldiers spun about as one, their weapons blazing. The mix of light and sound making it suddenly even harder to track what was going on.

The thing that had drawn their fire was a tarantula, already damaged by the blast and struggling to right itself without the use of one of its legs. It was a pile of scrap now.

Odd slipped his pistols back into their holsters, the complex mechanism inside each one slotting in a new magazine. Fighting reflex he took his hand away and left the weapons at his sides.

He leaned in to examine the slab of concrete. Having to step over the smashed remains of several kankrelats in the process. The only thing holding it up at this point was the remnants of the table that it had mostly crushed. The slab probably weighed a good thousand pounds. He ducked his head down and peeked through the bits of table.

Yumi was hunkered down in there; it looked like she was unconscious, her left arm was slack at her side and her pistol was lying on the ground next to her. He couldn't tell if she had been hurt or not.

"How can we get her out?"

Odd nearly banged his head on the concrete slab; Ulrich's voice startled him that much.

"I think we can shift the concrete, but we only get one chance."

"Well William and I are both stronger than you; maybe we can shift it enough that you can get her out of there?"

"It's worth a try I suppose. But if you guys can lift it up, you can maybe just flip it over?"

Ulrich looked at William. He shrugged and slid his rifle around onto his back. "Let's just get this done I suppose."

He and Ulrich positioned themselves, and after several moments of grunting the slab began to move. At first it was only just a bit, but then it suddenly lurched in an alarming manner before suddenly slamming down on the floor.

Odd was down on his knees beside Yumi, with Ulrich helping to get her up between them. There was a nasty gash on her forehead and her padded armor was torn and burned in several places, with a dark stain on her abdomen. Her head lolled back as Ulrich lifted her up on his shoulder. Odd picked up her pistol, and saw that there was still a single bullet in the chamber.

Closing his eyes for a moment he slipped it into his pack and followed Ulrich out, his hands resting on the buts of his pistols in case there was any more trouble heading their way.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N Hey all. Sorry this is as late as it is, but I do have to work to afford things. [Being an adult isn't that awesome as it turns out.] **

**Anyway, this is William's chapter. Something very interesting happens in this, if I do say so myself. I hope everyone enjoys!**

**Leave a review please!**

CHAPTER 10

So, here's the thing. There are no sedatives to be had when in the field. We get pain killers, antibiotics and bandages. All the basic things you need to take care of injuries. If you're close enough to the main lines, you can get medevac'd out and taken to a hospital.

When you're this far out, you're out of luck.

Jeremy was recovering fairly well. Apparently their pet telekine was good for more than using up the rations and sleeping. But that did bring one other issue up.

Ulrich and Odd set up a perimeter. They were now using the blown out restaurant for shelter, staying out of the immediate area around the tower, but managing to keep an eye on it all the same.

Odd and Aelita were at the moment, doing what they could to clean and dress Yumi's wounds. That the young woman had managed to survive the explosion was probably down to sheer luck more so than anything else.

Ulrich and Jeremy were huddled in a corner on the other side of the room, more to preserve what remained of her modesty than for convenience. Which was of course, absolutely hilarious. They had all been out here far to long for that sort of thing.

The sniper was recovering, but her shoulder was a vicious bruise that ran from her upper arm all over her back. She had a thick bandage wrapped around her head and another one around her side. The armor that was designed to allow her to crouch down and settle in with her rifle comfortably lacked any of the rigidity of the heavy ceramic plates the rest of them wore, making the laser weapons of Xana's monsters far more dangerous.

Twice now he had stripped and cleaned his gun, making sure all of the components were still functional and properly oiled and clean. It was make work, and he knew that. As hard as he wanted to, William couldn't shake the feeling that running back to rescue Yumi was the same as running back to save Sissi. The only real difference being that there was still an entire team coming to her aide, as opposed to just him.

He idly kicked at a rock, sending it skittering across the floor. The others all dropped what they were doing and looked up, reaching for weapons and furtively scanning for a threat. He shook his head and the relaxed, or at least, most of them did.

But then again, he could never tell if the telekine was relaxed or not. She always seemed on edge, expecting something to happen somewhere.

That probably came from invading everyone's thoughts all the time.

William gazed back out, still trying to ignore how fresh the loss of his team was; he had already put a lot of effort into burying those feelings. It figured that Yumi would somehow manage to dredge them back up with her instability.

That stubbornness reminded him too much of Milly.

He didn't notice Aelita approach behind him.

"Was it really that similar? Coming to help?"

He jumped. She spoke softly, not letting her voice carry beyond anyone immediately nearby.

He glared at her unhappily.

"I told you I don't like you in my mind"

"Who ever said I want to be there? You're mired in your past, letting it poison your future."

William shifted uncomfortably. "what do you care?"

"I have to deal with it William! Everyone one of us has to! If you hadn't deigned to help us, Yumi wouldn't be alive right now. I get that coming to this building like we did was starkly similar to your attempt at saving Sissi, but you need to move on. If only because it's the one thing that is keeping you from being accepted in our team. "

He scoffed.

"You mean besides the fact that not one of you wants me here?"

"I can't deny you weren't the first choice, I know Jeremy and Odd don't have a problem with you unless your being an idiot. but if you give them a chance, because you are being an idiot."

"Of course it's because I'm an idiot. Of course it's entirely because of me. It would have nothing to do with any of you being even a little willing to let me into your little club. It's like children."

"That's uncalled for. No one here had a childhood. This war took that away from them. From all of us. You aren't the only one that lost things. Most telekines that serve in the field only survive for a few months. People that I knew more intimately than anyone else, more than half are gone now."

"I don't really care." His voice was harsh, and made her cringe.

"And that is the entire problem. That you don't care. Why should any of us care about you? You can't just demand that we do this and then have no give on your side. I know you don't want to hear this, and that your trying to block me out."

He glared at her, but she knew she was making headway against his stubbornness. It scared him how well she knew him.

"What have you done every time someone makes a mistake?"

He pointedly didn't answer, but she knew what he was thinking anyway.

She was standing yet closer to him. "It's not easy to face your own mistakes. People just don't like to have to do that sort of thing. I know that you don't think of me as human, and maybe I'm not. But don't think that I would wish these powers on my worst enemy."

That finally drew a response from him.

"Is it really that bad? I saw you crush an entire krabe like it was nothing. And you threw both me and Yumi into a block of cement and pinned us there."

She sat next to him, slipping her rifle into her lap. "You only see the most blatant aspect of what it is to be like me. What happened to you when Jeremy was shot?"

William shrugged. "I don't know. Not much of anything really."

"You know what it was like for me? I thought that I had been shot. It felt exactly the same for me as it did him. When you and Yumi are needling each other? I feel just how much it hurts and I feel the sick satisfaction that you guys feel, at the same exact time. Half of us go insane within five years of leaving the academy. One in three don't make it out of the academy, we have the highest suicide rate among every branch of people in the entire world."

William was silent. She knew he was trying to digest everything she had told him.

"Is it really that bad? Does anyone else know about this?"

She shook her head.

"Why not?"

"I thought you didn't care William?"

He frowned, and she cut him off before he could speak; "You don't want to be here anymore than Ulrich wants you here."

"And you don't either. You do a better job of hiding it though."

Aelita was silent. She had to ask herself, how had he found out about that?


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N Hey all! Sorry this took so long. I've been working an extra set of shifts these last few weeks. **

**But enough of that crap, you don't really care. Here's Jeremy's chapter. I hope everyone enjoys it. **

**Leave me a review eh?**

**Chapter 11**

The painkillers were starting to wear off. His shoulder ached like nothing he had ever felt before. But that was something he had no choice but to push past. He had to help Odd set up the last of their supply of explosive charges, so they could blow the tower and disrupt the monsters in the area.

Jeremy idly ran his hand over the cold metal, feeling a deep thrum of energy pulsing through the massive edifice. The jagged spire of black metal was by far the largest building for miles, boldly proclaiming Xana's power to all who saw it. Even after all these years, no one knew how they worked, or what powered them.

"What are you thinking Jeremy?"

Odd's question snapped him back to reality and out of his thoughts. He rubbed at the bandages wrapped tight around his shoulder and shook his head.

"I'd love to know what makes these things work. Where they get their power from, and how they control the monsters in the area."

Odd shrugged. "I like when they fall down."

Jeremy couldn't help but smile. Sometimes Odd's rather simplistic outlook was probably the best.

Jeremy was suddenly struck by an idea.

"Odd, can we get the tower to split open?"

Odd stared at him. His eyes lighting up. "That would be awesome!" he ducked down and grabbed a string of charges, scampering away to do who knows what.

Jeremy shook his head, catching sight of Ulrich and Yumi. she didn't look great. The bandages wrapped around her head and arm were stained a deep red already, and she had lost nearly all of her color.

"Okay, everyone has to clear the area. It's going to come down!"

Everyone's heads snapped around as one, rising to their feet they all backed away slowly, still wary of yet more of Xana's monsters hiding away to ambush them.

Odd jogged slowly over, and collectively they all took cover behind a large section of fallen building. Odd held up a large detonator. He shook it back and forth a little, playing his finger around the button.

"just blow it already, would you?" snapped Ulrich.

Odd stuck his tongue out, and Aelita rolled her eyes. William and Jeremy both covered their ears in preparation.

Odd pressed the button.

Silence.

He pressed it again.

And then he pressed it a third time.

He muttered to himself under his breath, and Aelita shifted uncomfortably.

Jeremy felt someone grabbing at the pistol on his hip.

Yumi was awkwardly digging at it with her off hand. He unbuckled it for her and handed it to her.

Odd was disassembling his detonator now.

William was grumbling to himself.

Yumi racked the slide, and Jeremy, guessing what was coming next, replaced his hands over his ears. Aeilta put a hand on Odd's shoulder, and he sighed.

Jeremy reflexively flinched away from Yumi when his gun bucked in her hand.

Again, nothing happened, the bullet sparking against the tower just inches from one of the charges.

Aelita dug into her pack and started tearing into a ration bar.

It was then with a startling suddenness the relative silence was shattered by a chain of explosions, setting a ripple of fire and shrapnel flying into the air around the tower.

The tower remained standing. The silence was deafening.

Odd had reassembled the detonator.

No one moved at all, it was as if they were collectively holding their breath, waiting and hoping and even praying that the tower would come down.

Something shifted.

A single crack echoed lowly from the tower, and a hairline fracture started to grow on the side of the tower.

The structure fell to the left, shaking the ground hard when it hit, and split itself open in a mass of tangled metal and circuitry.

The dust had only begun to spring up around it, and Jeremy was already up and over the barrier and sprinting to the fallen tower with his laptop case in his hands. He dropped down on his knees next to it.

This was why he was out in the field, so far from his desks and computers and science.

There was nothing that could be done at this point. There was nothing more that could be learned from dead monsters and pieces of scrap.

In a flash his scanners and detection equipment was out, and he was plugging them into his heavy laptop, already he was getting readings. Somehow there was still power in the tower, but it was fading fast, and he had to get as much information as he could.

Something inside the tower sparked and drew his attention, leaving his computer to gather data he moved over, slipping between two broken support spars. Nestled between several heavy gauge conduits was a single circuit board. Carefully he had to slide it out, wiggling it just a little to break it free of whatever it was connected to.

He stared at it a little in awe. The board was about ten inches square. Literally encrusted with gold and miniaturized capacitors. This was something that would completely revolutionize mankind's study of Xana and its monsters.

His laptop started beeping again. he glanced over at the screen and shook his head in disappointment. More of xana's monsters were coming, though they were only just on the edge of his scans.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N; hey all. I want to apologize for the long wait, and the fact that despite their being important things going on in the last chapter, it was mostly filler. **

**This should make up for it, and if I do say so myself, sets the stage for a spectacular next phase of this story. **

**I am going to dedicate this chapter to the bevy of reviewers that have smarmed this work in the last few days. Many of them anonymous, but appreciated just the same. Please R&R!**

Chapter 12

Yumi was the second one up from the rubble they were using as cover. She looked around at the open area that surrounded what used to be the tower. The ground was now strewn with bits of metal and the hulks of the monsters they had destroyed.

Something caught her eye not far from where she stood, and she made her way over to it. It was her rifle. What had caught her eye was the polished wooden stock, the only naturally colored thing in the entire area.

Ignoring the ache in her body, she knelt down and lifted it up, wincing and cursing quietly. Her gun was scuffed and beat, essentially left where she had dropped it earlier. For whatever reason she crouched down with it, and hugged the weapon tight to her body, now that she had her rifle it was like she was whole again.

Lovingly she played her hand over the stock, before deftly disengaging a pair of hidden locks and slid the back of the stock out, exposing the guts of the gun to the air. She flipped it over and inspected it closely, making sure that everything was still in working order.

The only thing that was missing now was the heavy gauge bullets that the gun used. The long cylinder that was attached to the end of the stock could hold up to ten of them, and was completely empty. She reached into one of her pouches, looking of another magazine.

There were none to be had; somehow both the pouches she kept the cylinders in had ended up empty. That meant her rifle was completely useless to everyone. That meant she was useless to everyone.

Something hard and cold tapped her on the shoulder, and she looked up to see Odd standing over her, one of her magazines in his hand. She sat speechless as he pressed it into her hand, and winked. "I was thinking you might need this."

After a moment of silence she smiled back at him. "This means a lot Odd."

"Don't worry about it." He was already scampering away before she could even fit the new magazine into her rifle.

"Oh, Yumi! Ulrich found three more of them if you want them."

She nodded to him her thanks and picked herself up from the ground, grateful that she still had at least some ammunition for the trip back to base. It was something she would have to make count as much as possible.

"Yumi, we need you over here, now!"

The urgency in Aelita's voice shocked her into immediate action, and without thinking she was slinging her beloved rifle over her shoulder and jogged over to the rest of the group.

"What's going on? Did Jeremy find anything interesting?"

Jeremy grinned and pushed up his glasses. "I found enough data that should be able to completely change the game, maybe even be able to turn the tide of the war."

To say that such news was shocking would be a gross understatement. Yumi did know how to process the scale of that kind of information.

"What are we supposed to do with it then having it doesn't mean we can actually use it." Of course it was William who had to dash all their hopes of victory. Yumi scowled at him.

"It doesn't matter right now though. Every sensor we set in the last few miles has lit up, monsters are swarming in from every direction as we speak."

Yumi clutched tighter at her rifle, Jeremy was injured, and her arm was badly damaged. She'd been lucky to not have it broken in Odd's explosion. How were they supposed to deal with even more of Xana's monsters?

"So what do we do now?"

"We fight. It's what we always do."

"We can't fight Odd." It was Aeilta who spoke up now. "Yumi can't fire her rifle, you don't have any more large explosives, Ulrich and I are low an ammo."

"Running away is the only smart option right now."

Yumi looked to William. As much as she wanted nothing to do with any of his ideas, he was right, and everyone knew it too.

"Then that's what we do." Ulrich took a deep breath and continued; "We fall back, if we keep quiet and make good time, it's only a few days to the nearest green zone. We can resupplied at a forward base there and continue onwards. We have to get this new information to the command post."

"You make it sound so easy." Yumi smiled at Odd. Of course he could make light of what was going on.

"Then we should get going shouldn't we?"

If only it had been that simple. When they were marching in they had made about thirty miles a day. At the rate they were moving now, with Jeremy and Yumi injured, and with so many monsters swarming around the area, they were lucky to make half of that.

Nine hours of grueling movement, every time one of Jeremy's scanners went off or they thought they had heard something, or if Aelita felt the presence of the machines they had to stop, and press themselves into the nearest building or crevice. Something Yumi was finding ever harder to manage with her arm. It was the most exhausting thing she had ever done, and she knew it was wearing just as heavily on everyone else at the same time. Which meant that complaining was out of the picture.

They made twenty miles, and had more close calls than could be counted. They found an abandoned shop that was at least mostly intact. Odd set the last of his grenades as booby traps and all of them stripped out of their armor and gear without speaking. Ulrich pointed at the people that were due to take watches and the rest of them promptly fell asleep. Yumi didn't even blink at William having to take a Watch, even if yesterday she would have protested having to rely on him to keep everyone safe.

Something exploded not far away.

Yumi bolted upright, reaching for her rifle and had to stifle a cry of pain, her arm had come out from its sling, and she had stretched it wrong. It felt like someone had jammed a hot poker into her shoulder, and tears were welling up in her eyes. But at least she was awake now.

Laser bolts flashed past her, bursting against the remnants of the shelves and counter. Yumi scrambled and pulled her pistol out from her holster, William and Odd already up and firing into the darkness. Something heavy and metallic lunged out at them, bearing down on Odd.

Yumi screamed and fired her pistol into it, the heavy slugs sparking and punching into its side. The thing turned to face her, showing a metallic maw that was stained red and heavy metal teeth that glinted. In place of eyes it had a pulsing red Eye of Xana.

Yumi scrambled away from it desperately, her injured shoulder making it harder and more painful.

Aelita appeared beside her, her features distorted by the unfocused light around them, her wings looked more like black flame than their usual pink light. She threw the monster, whatever it was across the room, and it screeched as it smashed though the wall.

Yumi smiled half-heartedly at Aelita, her smile turning into a cry of fear and a shout of warning. She found herself rooted to the spot as Aelita turned around, her arms raised to ward off an unseen attacker.

A metal blade burst from her back, striking Yumi across the face and chest with hot blood. Aelita crumpled to the ground, flames encroaching inwards from the edges of the building. She tried to move towards her friend, but found herself trapped, something had bound her feet to the floor and the machine that had attacked her and Odd stalked over Aelita, closing in on her with an agonizing slowness.

Her pistol was laying on the other side of the room, and she could feel her heart hammering its way out of her chest as the thing stretched out, growing large enough to fill the room above her, the Eye of Xana on its face glinting at her malevolently, reaching out at her with a blood stained leg blade, larger even than the blades used by krabes to stay upright.

A searing pain blossomed across the side of her face when the sickening wet tip of the weapon touched her cheek and she found herself unable to scream.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N hey guys! I hear tell that people were awfully unsure about what was going to happen as of the end of the last chapter. Well, rest assured that I have a plan. Well sortof anyway. **

**This is ulrich's third time around, and a big thanks to everyone for sticking with this for so long!**

CHAPTER 13

Odd set up what would have to pass for a perimeter. Half a dozen hand grenades set up on tripwires, the only thing that would serve as a warning if something snuck in close to them during the night. Everyone was exhausted, and Ulrich had no illusions about the odds of anyone staying up long enough to manage a proper watch.

All the same he pointed at William, Jeremy, and Aelita to keep an eye on the goings on around them. He didn't like it, but keeping up the pretense of business as usual was good for moral. Odd and Yumi had already turned their packs into pillows and stripped off their armor, at this point things like dressing and privacy were long gone.

He slipped the clip from his rifle, and made himself focus on consolidating his ammunition. After everything was said and done, he was down to three full clips, and a little less than half of one. After weighing his options he slipped the half clip into his rifle, racking the slide to chamber a round, and thumbed the safety off.

The gun wasn't going to leave his hands until it was morning, or he was dead. Odd was already snoring, and Yumi had managed a fitful sleep despite the horrible sound. She looked like a broken bird that needed to be free.

What she had said still weighed heavily on him, about removing her name from the list of survivors. He had to make his decisions based on the good of the team, but the past few years had been weighing ever more heavily on her, and since Milly died she had been in a downward spiral. Ulrich wanted to keep her close in case things got out of hand.

On the other side of the room Jeremy and Aeilta were huddled together. He couldn't help but smile. If there was even a tiny piece of normality out here, it was those two, as messed up as they were.

Something woke him up.

The first thing he did was check his watch. He'd been asleep about three hours. Aelita had dozed off, still sitting up against a wall and with her rifle in her lap. From what he could tell, it wasn't loaded.

Any other time that would be a citation, but it wasn't important right now.

All Ulrich wanted to know was what had woken him up. And whether or not he could shoot it.

Shooting something sounded like a good idea actually; maybe he could get lucky and 'accidentally' shoot William for sneaking around in the night. Yeah, that would be nice.

A can skittered across the floor.

Ulrich swore and snapped back awake, checking his watch and pointing his gun. Another hour had gone by, Aelita was still slumped against the wall, clip in one hand, gun in the other.

He cast about, the half-light making it difficult to see properly. He was about to give up and go back to sleep, when Yumi jerked in her sleep. Curious he rolled over to her, and could make out her eyes fluttering under her eyelids.

She twitched again, and he noticed that she was clenching her fist so slightly that her nails were drawing blood. Tiny little rivulets were just visible.

"Yumi, wake up, it's just a dream." He shook her gently, but the only thing that did was make her breathing speed up. She sounded like she was running a marathon.

He swore, louder this time and across the room Aelita opened her eyes, jerking awake she dropped her ammo and her rifle, and pressed her hands to her head tightly, moaning lowly.

"What's going on Aelita?"

She shook her head, and actually banged her head against the wall.

Ulrich leapt across the room, all semblance of being quite now long gone as Aelita did it again. He grabbed the sides of her head, holding her so she couldn't do it a third time. He forced her to look him in the eyes.

"What on earth is going on?"

"Yumi's having a terror. Oh god Ulrich, I just died and she's in so much pain."

"Then we have to wake her up."

She grabbed his arm, her grip frighteningly strong. "You can't just wake someone from a terror!" she cringed again, whimpering in time with Yumi.

"Screw that." Ulrich nudged Yumi gently, and she shook her head and he could hear Aelita whimpering behind him, and Jeremy and Odd we both stirring into wakefulness.

Ulrich shook Yumi's shoulder, and this time she cried out and raked his face with the broken nails of her left hand, drawing blood and nearly scoring his eye.

"Ulrich, what's wrong?"

He waved Odd away, gripping Yumi's hand so she couldn't hurt him anymore. She screamed this time and tried to pull away from him, trying desperately to push him away with her bad arm, but unable to.

He shook her harder, and her eyes snapped open, staring right through him, pupils dilated as wide as they can. He let go of her in shock, not noticing Aelita behind him had curled into a ball and passed out. Both Odd and Jeremy now trying to tend to her.

Yumi closed her eyes and then snapped them open again, her chest heaving as she looked up at Ulrich, like she was seeing him for the first time.

Her hand went to her face, and she starred at it uncertainly, her fingers tinged red with Ulrich's blood, before clawing at her shirt, practically tearing it off her body with no obvious notion of modesty. She pressed her hands to her stomach and chest, her breathing easing out.

Pointedly averting his eyes Ulrich pulled his shirt off and handed it to her, it wasn't really clean, and certainly smelled like it was weeks since being washed, but it was better than nothing. She put it on sheepishly, still running her hands over her body absent mindedly.

"Is everyone else okay?"

He nodded. "Aelita wasn't doing so good, but I'm glad you're okay."

She wasn't sure what to do with that, and it showed. "What do you mean? Why wouldn't I be okay?" she looked at his face for the first time. Shock painted itself across her features. "What happened to your face?"

"You don't remember? Yumi! You were thrashing about in your sleep, and whatever you were dreaming about had Aelita nearly comatose in shock."

She reached up to his face, playing her fingers gently over the torn skin. "Ulrich, I'm so sorry. That looks painful."

He shrugged. "It actually hurts a lot. Your finger nails are jagged, but they aren't sharp, I'll heal."

"No you won't, not out here. You could get an infection." She was almost pleading with him.

He sighed. "Fine, get some gauze."

He couldn't help but smile, even as messed up as things had become, she still cared about him.

"I'm sorry about the things I said the other day." He winced a little as she dabbed antiseptic on her scratches.

"It doesn't matter. With my arm the way it is I'll be out for months." She let the implication hang. With William filing an injunction against her, and her injury, she would be out of the fight for good when they got back.

"Jeremy and I already decided on that. It won't be going through. Both of us are blocking the complaint. I'm not willing to lose you. Not again."


End file.
